Adventures of a well-rounded geek

Day 99. Evermore

On Saturday I went to a local Denver play called Evermore. It is a play about Edgar Allen Poe’s life, focusing around his writing career and soon after his death. The play is performed in a house-turned-museum so that both the audience and the actors are in the living room, right next to each other. I was literally one foot away from the “stage”. It was a fantastic experience.

There are only four characters in the play: Edgar Allen Poe, Virginia Clemm Poe (Poe’s wife), Mrs. Maria Clemm (Virginia’s mother), and Dr. Rufus Griswold (Poe’s somewhat friend). I thought every actor did an amazing job at portraying his character. The characters were so real that I felt I was truly experiencing an excerpt of Poe’s life. I was immediately swept into the story.

Poe’s major works were weaved throughout the play. It was so seamless how they achieved it, that at one point it took me a good minute to realize that the Doctor was not plotting to kill Poe but rather he had become the narrator in Poe’s work The Tell-Tale Heart. They also included The Raven and Annabel Lee, among others.

The movement between scenes was flawless. I’m very impressed at how quickly they changed costumes too, that’s a work of art in itself.

There were happy, funny moments and very very sad moments. Although I wish there had been more cheerful moments, I understand the need for the depression as that’s exactly what happened to Poe. It was nice to learn that at one point he was a happy man, of course that may have made his downfall even worse.

The very last scene made me feel both uplifted and glum at the same time. I’m afraid there was no way to end the play on a positive note, since Poe did end up dying. Even so, the production was marvelous . Click here for more information about it. Tickets are $18 and it is being shown until November 16th. Go see it while you can.